OKXICE tokenized stock objections reach 26 as Intel, Oracle opt out

Twenty-six issuers have opted out of OKXICE's plan to trade their shares onchain, up from nine on Oct. 15, according to the venue's updated Oct. 26 notice reported by CoinDesk and Decrypt.

Intel, Oracle, IBM and quantum-computing firm IonQ were the additions in the Oct. 26 notice. They bring objections from the original 62-company roster to 23, or about 37%, according to a CoinDesk tally. Cerebras Systems, Arm Holdings and Wells Fargo, the other three of the 26, were absent from that original selection, CoinDesk reported.

A client buying these tokens holds a claim on a real share kept by a third-party tokenizer through a registered broker-dealer. If that broker-dealer failed, the notice says it is uncertain whether tokens in a self-custodied wallet would count as customer property or be covered by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, Decrypt reported. Trades must also be fully funded, with no margin or borrowing, so a tokenized position cannot do the collateral work of a marginable share.

OKXICE plans round-the-clock trading through permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on OKX's XLayer blockchain. Transactions will settle in stablecoins including USDC, according to Decrypt. Users must clear identity and sanctions checks and hold a nontransferable "soulbound" token to trade. Liquidity providers need not be registered market makers and can pull their liquidity at any time, which suggests quote depth outside U.S. hours will rest on volunteers under no continuing obligation to the venue.

Tokenization could bring additional demand, particularly from overseas investors, but may not be enough to offset concern about thin, round-the-clock trading outside the familiar market structure, TD Securities' Reid Noch previously told CoinDesk. Objecting costs nothing, while staying silent lets trading begin with no mechanism to withdraw that consent later, industry experts told CoinDesk's Tokenization Weekly — a design they said tilts the default toward opting out.

Andrew Cuomo, OKXICE's co-chairman and former New York governor, said on a press call last week that objections were expected and that many companies would rather "wait and see how it goes rather than be the first to participate."

The venue operates under the SEC's five-year Innovation Exemption, which requires venues to notify issuers and give them 30 days to object before offering tokenized versions of their shares. OKXICE's initial notice went out Oct. 4. Decrypt reported the exemption was unveiled in September after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate, and that OKX and ICE, the NYSE parent, first teamed up on tokenized securities earlier this year and unveiled the venue this month in a 50-50 joint venture pairing ICE and OKX's U.S. holding company.

That leaves 39 of the original 62 companies still eligible to trade, which makes the close of their 30-day notice periods the exemption's next test.